ASA Astrosysteme ASA20NG-OK3 f 3,6, FLI Proline 16803
Ha: 16×1200″, OIII: 12×1200″, Red: 3×1200″, Blue: 4×1200″
This image shows the massive star EZ Canis Majoris surrounded by the Sh2-308 (emission) nebula.
EZ Canis Majoris is a Wolf-Rayet star. These are some of the brightest and most massive stars in the universe, dozens of times as massive as our sun.
Intense winds from these stars produce gas bubbles in the surrounding material.
EZ Canis Majoris is responsible for creating the Sh2-308 bubble – the star expelled its outer layers to produce the filaments seen in this image. Intense, continuous radiation pushes the bubble further and further away from the star, making it larger and larger. Currently, the Sh2-308 bubble-shaped gas cloud is 60 light years across!
Though beautiful, these cosmic bubbles are, like everything, temporary.
The same stars that gave rise to it will also destroy them when those same stars explode as supernovas.
At the buttom, we can see a perfect circle. It’s PN G234.9-09.7, a tiny nebula almost never seen at Sharpless 308.